Instead of purchasing commercially manufactured flies and jigs, many fisherman today are making their own flies and jigs and in fact fly tying is an avocation or hobby identifiable apart from the actual fishing activity. To assist this fly tying hobbiest there are a variety of commercially available products usable in the fly tying process such as vises, fly clippings catching containers and various specially designed pliers and line knot tying devices. With the hook held in the vise, the various artificial fly material strands are attached to the hook by thread material to artfully form a multi-colored fly that when jerked over the surface of water simulates various insects.
Sometimes the fly tier will apply paint or cement to the completed fly, particularly when making a jig, which is similar to a fly with the addition of an enlarged head adjacent the hook eye. This paint or cement frequently enters the hook eye and after setting prevents the free entry of the line or leader in the eye and thus requires cleaning. Fly hooks are quite small and the inside diameter of their hook eyes is quite small, frequently less than 1/32 of an inch. This makes cleaning the eye with common tools quite difficult. Even small pocket knives have rather blunt nosed ends that do not do an adequate job of cleaning these small hook eyes.
When changing flies stream side or when removing flies from the line prior to going home the fisherman cuts and trims the leader and line. When removing the fly from the line or leader, the leader is severed and the eye knot must be cut away from the hook eye. The leader or line is usually severed with a knife, but a straight bladed knife such as found in pocket knives or paring knives or even small hunting knives requires one hand for holding the knife and the other for tensioning the line or leader, which is somewhat cumbersome when the fisherman is trying to hold the fly and the line and sometimes even the fly rod itself all at the same time. Moreover, the usual blunt blade ends on these knives make it difficult to cut the knot from the small hook eye.
It is a primary object of the present invention to ameliorate the problems noted above in fly tying and fly fishing and provide a combined fishing tool which will both cut line and leader and clean small hook eyes.